Eight Asia-Pacific budget carriers enter landmark alliance

Reading Time: 1minuteNok Air, one of Thailand’s largest low-cost carriers, is part of the new “Value Alliance”

Budget airlines in Asia-Pacific formed the region’s first alliance of its kind, opening their network and their respective passengers to each other and using a common booking platform for flights to a total of more than 160 destinations with 174 aircraft.

The eight airlines collectively served more than 47 million travelers from 17 hubs last year.

The partnership, however, will so far not include code-sharing agreements, access to a network of waiting lounges or the opportunity to redeem points on partner flights. It also does not include Asia’s biggest budget carriers such as AirAsia, Lion Air, IndiGo and Jetstar.

Low-cost carriers have flourished in Asia as growing wealth encourages more people to fly for the first time. At least a dozen low-cost airlines started operating in Asia-Pacific the past decade, ordering hundreds of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.

Reading Time: 1minuteNok Air, one of Thailand’s largest low-cost carriers, is part of the new “Value Alliance”

Budget airlines in Asia-Pacific formed the region’s first alliance of its kind, opening their network and their respective passengers to each other and using a common booking platform for flights to a total of more than 160 destinations with 174 aircraft.

The eight airlines collectively served more than 47 million travelers from 17 hubs last year.

The partnership, however, will so far not include code-sharing agreements, access to a network of waiting lounges or the opportunity to redeem points on partner flights. It also does not include Asia’s biggest budget carriers such as AirAsia, Lion Air, IndiGo and Jetstar.

Low-cost carriers have flourished in Asia as growing wealth encourages more people to fly for the first time. At least a dozen low-cost airlines started operating in Asia-Pacific the past decade, ordering hundreds of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.